Hello,I recently encountered a man wearing ACUs, [on an USAF base] with a tape saying DoD Civilian, not Army? He had a Lt. Colonel's rank on too? I did not know whether to salute him or not because of his name tape? I told my chain of command this too, they didn't know whether to salute or not either.Any thoughts?

Just salute it. If you're wrong, he'd probably explain it to you. If he doesn't, it's not like you've created a problem.

"If in doubt, whip it out."

I'm curious as to why someone would wear such a thing in that manner, but if I don't get an answer, I don't care. You'll rarely get in trouble for saluting when you're not supposed to. You will get in trouble for not saluting when you should.

I currently work with a number of retired (officer and warrant officer) pilots, who are employed as DACs (Department of the Army Civilians) in flying jobs. They train evaluate and mentor current active duty aviators in their Regiment, are addressed as "Sir" and wear OCPs with "DAC" tabs. They are not in leadership billets (any more) but continue to draw pay as highly respected, veteran technical support professionals. They are currently operating stateside as well as OCONUS. Some few of them do continue to wear prior grade insignia alongside their clear DoD Civilian designation.

This may seem a bit unusual but is not unheard of. I am a former DoD civilian myself and on occasion wore a standard nomex green flight suit myself while flying in Navy/USMC aircraft. I've even been asked recently if I can support some flight tests planned this winter, flying in back, but as I don't meet uniform requirements due to weight I'm probably going to defer and pick someone else in my office to fly for me (ugh) (and No, you'd never see me with my Lt Col insignia on it).

Bottom line: they are in all probability quite legit, and you won't ever be blamed for rendering a proper salute in good faith.

The practical reality is that he is probably a contractor and probably a retired Lt Col.

Most definitely no!

He was a DOD Civilian. Contractors are not allowed to wear DOD Civilian Name Tapes and are almost never given rank equivalence.

He was most likely a GS-14 with "command" authority.....which is rare....but does happen. When stationed in Japan I was in a Joint Billet....the Director of the Operations Center I worked was a GS-15 who had operational control over the military personnel assigned to her Ops Center so she had O-6 equivalence.

I see a lot of DOD/DAF/DA Civilians down range.....I never saw one wearing rank insignia......but it can happen.

You salute the grade, not the nametape. The amount of time you spent typing this message wasmore time then you needed to waste mentally on the issue.

The practical reality is that he is probably a contractor and probably a retired Lt Col.

Beyond that, FIMO.

Either way if he is a contractor/DOD civilian he/she doesn't wear grade insignia they were a US. And I find it odd a contractor/civilian is wearing a uniform CONUS. Usually its reserved for the AOR. Sounds like a possible poser...

Maybe not a poseur...For example - there are contract security at a government facility where I work often. The guards are contract employees hired by FPS who wear paramilitary uniforms identifying them as contractors but wear military-style rank. The guys who zip around the perimeter on 4 wheelers wear flight suits or multicam ACUs. They all wear subdued Army/USAF rank through O6 ...It's very confusing to a lot of people.

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